


Pillow Fort

by startrekkingaroundasgard



Series: Bucky Barnes Bingo [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bad Flirting, Fluff, M/M, Pillow & Blanket Forts, Sleep Deprivation, Sleepy Cuddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-18
Updated: 2019-06-18
Packaged: 2020-05-13 22:55:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19260823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/startrekkingaroundasgard/pseuds/startrekkingaroundasgard
Summary: Bucky finds Tony in a state of severe sleep deprivation and enlists his help to build a pillow fort in the hope that that might finally get him to sleep.





	Pillow Fort

Sleep rarely came easily to Bucky. As the Soldier, he hadn’t needed to sleep. Or, rather, there had been more important things on his mind. The mission was always his sole focus and resting only interfered with the job at hand. Plus, he was rarely out of cryo long enough to feel the effects of sleep deprivation.

Now, though, he felt those effects all too well but he couldn’t sleep. He couldn’t risk stepping into the darkness and drowning in the nightmares. It was painful. When his barriers were down, the memories, the phantom faces which haunted him day and night, were impossible to ignore.

So, Bucky spent many evenings just wandering around the Compound counting steps and doing everything possible to escape the ghosts that never stopped screaming in his ears. He got the rest he needed through a series of short cat naps throughout the day and condemned himself to walking the corridors alone in the dark. It was therapeutic, really. It gave him the time he needed to be alone with his thoughts in the dead silence.

Tonight, though, the Compound was not so quiet. As Bucky roamed aimlessly through the halls, a pained sound echoed from a distance. It was… well he wasn’t entirely sure of the source at all. It sounded not unlike a cat being strangled but he couldn’t recall anyone on the team getting a pet (they all struggled to look after themselves, let alone another more complicated than a plant).

Following the sound, he soon found himself outside Tony’s private lab. Bucky pressed his hands to the glass and peered inside to see the genius dancing around - if randomly flailing his limbs to music could be called dancing - and bashing into every surface in the lab without evening noticing. If Bucky wasn’t so concerned by the behaviour, he would have found it highly entertaining to watch.

However, despite his concerns - this definitely classed as abnormal behaviour, even for Tony - he couldn’t convince himself to step into the private lab. He and Tony didn’t speak much other than on Avenger business and while he desperately wanted to get to know the gorgeous brunette better he never had the courage to take that leap. After all, why would Tony be interested in someone with as dangerous, with as much baggage as him?

It was only when Tony picked up a broken screwdriver and started having a serious discussion about quantum mechanics with it that Bucky decided it was time to step in. “FRIDAY?” He whispered, still not entirely comfortable talking to the disembodied woman. “Can you let me in?”

“Your biometrics are on the system, Sergeant Barnes. Just touch the scanner on the door.”

“They are?” Bucky frowned. If there was one thing that everyone in the Compound knew it was that only five people were allowed into Tony’s lab without his express permission: Pepper, Col. Rhodes, Happy (who Bucky had on multiple occasions found to be far from cheery), the spider kid and Prof. Banner. Everyone else had to wait at the door and be invited in.

FRIDAY quickly explained, “Yep. The boss put them into the system about five days and thirteen hours after your arrival - three minutes and twenty seconds after he first met you - in the hope that you might come to visit him sometime. As of yet, you have only entered the lab on six registered occasions: five of which were with Captain Rogers and one with Agent Romanoff. The boss will be excited to finally get you alone.”

There was a lot of information there to process and Bucky physically felt his thoughts stall and reset as he tried to understand what FRIDAY was saying. He shook his head because she couldn’t be implying what it sounded like, because Tony had never shown any indication… Sure, the genius flirted sometimes but he was like that with everyone. Bucky had never considered that it actually meant something more…

Convinced that he was reading into things, blaming his inability to think straight on sleep deprivation, pushing down the bubble of hope that was quickly rising in his chest, Bucky asked, “FRIDAY… Are you, what… Are you saying Tony - Tony - has a… That he likes me?”

“I couldn’t possibly say, Sergeant. But, given the evidence, one might conclude that he certainly wants to get to know you. In an intimate sense. Repeatedly.”

“Please stop,” Bucky grumbled, dragging his hands down his face. This was certainly not a conversation he’d been expecting to have tonight. Before FRIDAY could say anything else to make him want to crawl in a hole and die, he pressed his hand to the biometric scanner and stepped into the lab when the screen turned green.

He had barely passed the threshold when Bucky darted across the lab to catch Tony before he tripped over a discarded piece of armour. Setting Tony upright, he gave a slightly awkward smile as they both bent down to pick up the metal gauntlet and brushed fingers. A pleasant warmth spread through Bucky’s chest and it only grew the longer Tony smirked at him.

“What can I do for you, Buck?” Tony asked, setting the suit piece on the workbench.

“Nothing.” Bucky rested against the surface and crossed his arms over his chest. “I was passing and heard someone being tortured so came to make sure you were safe. Turns out it was just you singing.”

Tony’s mouth fell open in offence and he puffed his chest up, trying to square off against Bucky. “My singing is amazing, thank you.”

“It’s dreadful, sweet thing,” Bucky said, the endearment rolling off his tongue before he could stop it. However, Tony didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he flashed Bucky a thousand Watt smile, a gorgeous red blush covering his neck. Bucky wondered how far down that blush went. Shaking the thought, he asked, “When was the last time you slept?”

“I don’t know,” Tony said, hissing like a stray alley cat when Bucky pulled the mug from his hands. If it had been coffee, Bucky wouldn’t have bothered. However, it appeared to be filled with motor oil of some kind and, metal heart or not, he figured that wouldn’t do Tony much good. “Forty, fifty hours?”

“Eighty-three hours, boss,” FRIDAY confirmed. That certainly explained a lot.

“Okay, Tony, why don’t you come with me? I think it’s time to get some rest.”

“Don’t need rest. Not tired. There’s too much to do, look!” He gestured at the computer screen which was spitting out streams of data, far too fast for Bucky to follow. Yet somehow Tony seemed to understand exactly what they were saying; that or he was hallucinating and scribbling down notes which would be unintelligible come morning. “See? This proves it. If I can invert the polarisation and change the core out for a technitium manganese oxide compound then I can maximise the out of the blasters by almost two percent!”

“Two percent?”

“That’s what I said, Bucky-o.”

“That doesn’t seem an awful lot, Tony.”

The genius started to argue but cut himself off half way through a sentence to jump up and rush to the other side of the lab, where a machine was beeping quite enthusiastically. With an excited cheer, Tony pulled the device from the 3D printer and said, “Fri, secure the lab and start up test protocols.”

“What about the blaster?” Bucky asked, concerned that testing any kind of weapon in this state would at best lead to Tony losing an eyebrow and at worst land him in the hospital. “Your two percent increase?”

“Two percent? That’s nothing! Not worth doing at all. This is much more important. Look, isn’t it awesome?” Tony held out his hands and showed Bucky his grand new design: a plastic statuette of… A frog? Or maybe it was a unicorn? He wasn’t entirely sure.

Before Bucky could get his hands on it and take a proper look, Tony leapt away and started testing the ‘weapon’. He climbed up on top of one of the work benches, stretched his arms out straight then started ‘shooting’ things. “Pew, pew! Bang! Crash! Pew pew pew!”

“FRIDAY…” Bucky said slowly, more concerned than ever for Tony’s sanity.

“He won’t leave unless he passes out,” she informed him regretfully.

“We’ll see about that.”

Bucky strode calmly over to where Tony was now crouched in the corner, whispering tactics to the frog-unicorn, and gently touched his arm. The brunette glanced up, eyes wide and a little panicked, but he grinned the second his brain registered the friendly face. “Bucky! What are you doing here? Do you need help with something?”

“Actually, I do,” he said, wrapping his hands around Tony’s and softly prying the plastic statuette from his fingers. “I’ve been trying to build something in my room and I just can’t get it right. Do you think you could help me? If you aren’t too busy?”

“This isn’t a ruse to get me into your bed, is it?”

While it was true that Bucky had the intention of getting Tony into bed, it certainly wasn’t like that. At least not tonight. Still, the implication, and Tony’s apparent excitement at the possibility, made Bucky stumble. “Uh…”

“Because if it is, you only had to ask.” Tony jumped to his feet and slapped Bucky’s ass, heading towards the lift. Bucky wasn’t sure what it said about the genius that that was the most normal behaviour he’d’ exhibited all evening. Holding on to the lift doors, Tony waved Bucky over. “Come on then!”

Bucky’s room was dark, the only light the gentle glow of the moon streaming through the windows. Tony immediately got distracted and started exploring the room but Bucky didn’t mind. Maybe once he would have felt uncomfortable with people in his private space and looking through his things - a sparse collection but made up of a variety of trinkets and memorabilia which helped him stay connected to his true self - but now it wasn’t so much of an issue. Especially not with Tony.

Vaguely paying attention to Tony’s story about a ten foot tall bunny rabbit with curiously placed arms, Bucky grabbed a few pillows and blankets and threw them over the back of the sofa. He then wandered over to tap Tony on the shoulder, leaping away when Tony spun around and took up a fighting position.

The tension snapped almost immediately as the brunette burst out laughing, realising he’d been threatening Bucky with a deodorant can. “I wouldn’t hurt you, Bucko. Buckaroo. Buckarino. What were you trying to build?”

Rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, not entirely sure whether Tony would take to the idea or if this entire plan was stupid, Bucky murmured, “A pillow fort.”

“A pillow fort!” Tony exclaimed, bouncing excitedly. “I’ve always wanted to make one of those. Dad said they were a waste of time but really they’re feats of engineering.”

“Well, then. Where do we start, master engineer?”

In no time at all, Tony and Bucky had assembled the mother of all pillow forts. They had gathered sheets and blankets from every open room, stolen cushions from the common room and even found some Christmas lights to add ‘ambience’ because lamps were too boring.

Stretched out on a sea of soft, squishy pillows, Tony snuggled up to Bucky’s side and practically purred when Bucky pulled him tighter against his chest. Tony reached over and found Bucky’s hand, lacing their fingers together. “This was fun.”

“Yeah.”

“We should hang out more. Just us. Naked.”

Shallowly deeply, the thought certainly not unappealing, Bucky murmured, “Tony…”

“Too much?”

“You’re only saying that because you’re sleepy.”

Tony shrugged and wriggled even closer, tangling his legs with Bucky’s. “I get all my best ideas like this and that one sounds especially great.”

“How about we just start with coffee?”

“It’s a date.”

“It is?” Bucky asked startled. This certainly wasn’t how he imagined asking Tony out and, while definitely not as terrifying as he’d thought it would be, he was surprised by the certainty in Tony’s answer. “Tony?”

On his chest, Tony was snoring softly, exhaustion finally having caught up with him. Bucky pressed a kiss to his forehead and closed his eyes, falling into the best night’s sleep he’d had in years.


End file.
